Fabian Coulthard arrived in Townsville leading the Supercars championship and will leave searching for answers following a horror weekend.
The DJR Team Penske star surrendered overall top spot to teammate Scott McLaughlin after finishing 11th in Saturday's race.
Things got worse on Sunday when Coulthard missed the top-10 shootout before finishing 21st in the weekend's second 200km race.
The Ford star conceded there is work to do to claw back ground on McLaughlin and Holden's Jamie Whincup, who are now 158 and 152 points ahead of him respectively.
"We'll go back to the drawing board, have a look at a few things and see if we can't come back stronger at the next one," Coulthard said.
The 34-year-old got tangled up in a bumping duel with Craig Lowndes in the first lap of Sunday's race before contact with Tim Slade on lap three saw him slapped with a 15-second penalty.
The speed which has helped him to three race wins this year eluded him at the Reid Park street circuit.
"My guys they tried their absolute best but they couldn't get on top of the car," Coulthard said.
Despite the tough round, Coulthard is staying positive about returning to form.
"I've been in other teams and I've been in far worse positions than I am at the moment," Coulthard said.
"By any means our season is not bad, we just had a bit of a blip on the radar.
"Hopefully we can bounce back at the next one faster stronger better and get back on the podium."
Coulthard's fortunes were in stark contrast to McLaughlin who took his season tally to five wins and nine pole positions.
McLaughlin backed Coulthard to fight on when the series moves to Ipswich in three weeks.
"The guys never give up," McLaughlin said.
"Fabs has been a great teammate to me and we'll push on together."
Share
